R.I.P., PixieDusts (photo heavy)

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  The great nail polish casualty of 2014 was announced two days ago, from Zoya and via email, and in case you haven't heard, they're discontinuing their PixieDust line of textured polishes.  Zoya.com is having a buy one, get one sale to clear out inventory, running through tomorrow, Dec. 21.  Follow the link provided for the full listing of colors and the code to use during checkout.

Zoya PixieDusts

Zoya Wishes-- Winter 2014

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Zoya Wishes-- Winter 2014

  I've had some trouble trying to figure out exactly what vibe the Zoya faeries were going for when they created this year's winter collection, titled Wishes.  It's equal parts rich, dark, and cold, anchored by another trio of Pixiedusts and supplemented by a complementing creme, frost, and microshimmer.    

Zoya Ryan With Zoya Bar Accents

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  Hi all!!  I've got something short and sweet this morning.  Over the weekend I found myself venturing to Ulta for a new tube of primer and finishing powder.  As I was checking out, I (naturally) noticed the cashier's nails-- they were done in a dark blue creme with s champagne gold glitter accent.  I have kind of a skewed view of what anything involving two or more colors looks like on me but this duo I felt particularly drawn to, somehow.  My version is done with Zoya Ryan, a dark midnight blue jelly from the Entice collection, with an accent of Zoya Bar, a sparkling nude texture polish from the summer 2014 Magical Pixie collection.

Zoya Ryan With Zoya Bar Accents

Zoya Ultra PixieDusts Fall 2014

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Zoya Ultra PixieDusts Fall 2014

  Hello and happy first day of Fall!  The Zoya Ultra PixieDusts are here, gorgeous texture polishes in red, wine, and berry tones, and sporting a brand new formula.  Like the preceding Magical PixieDusts (summer 2014 collection {HERE}), these three are jelly based, sparkling, and packed with glitter, rather than the shimmer of the originals (fall 2013's Dhara and Arabella swatched {HERE}); unlike the Magicals, the Ultras feature tonal, metallic small round and larger hex glitters, giving each a glamorous and amped up monochromatic appearance. The Ultras aren't as chunky as the Magicals; the texture bits seem fewer and finer.  With the exception of Noir, for some reason, the Ultras much easier to remove; pigmentation is better, also, and each of these polishes is beautiful in two coats.

Sinful Colors Face the Facets

  Hi all!!  Ever on the lookout for a good yellow am I, and while it's usually cremes I'm after, I couldn't resist the shimmery prettiness of Sinful Colors' Face the Facets (or the 99¢ deal Walgreens recently had on their SCs).

  Face the Facets is a bright daffodil yellow texture polish, a rerelease for summer 2014.   It's a jelly base packed with monochromatic shimmer that flash a subtle (so subtle that I couldn't capture it on camera) yellow gold and spring green.

Sinful Colors Face the Facets

Zoya Magical Pixie Collection-- Summer 2014

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Zoya Magical PixieDusts Summer 2014

  Hi everyone!!  Zoya's third summer 2014 collection is also their second set of Magical Pixies, matte textured polishes filled with holographic hex glitters.  If you thought spring's Magical Pixies were chunky (review HERE), honey, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

  Like the spring set, this season's batch are all jelly based.  However, the microfine glitter that obscured the sheerness of the base and gave the spring colors their super sparkle has been replaced with a smaller amount of little holo glitters (presumably to up the "holo" quotient).  The former were opaque in two coats; these all need three, and with the texture and the abundance of larger glitter, end up quite thick on the nail.  The cool thing is that these colors fit together beautifully and seem to be tailor-made for ombre manicures, and, if you're skilled enough and not afraid of a little thickness, gradients.  On their own, they're lovely colors in a thickness bordering avant garde and even more reminiscent of Essie Belugaria than the last set.

Sinful Colors Hot Chili-- Summer 2014

  Good morning, guys and gals!!  I've got another one of Sinful Colors' summer offerings on my nails today, this one from the Simmer Down collection.  I said a couple days ago that the new SC summer lineup feels like anything goes, running the gamut from early spring to fall shades, and after a (very) small amount of research, I learned that the second color I chose, a texture called Hot Chili, was indeed a new release in the Spice It Up! collection last fall.  So I wonder if the rack o' polishes on display at my local Walgreens is even SC's summer collection at all, or just a marketing tool displaying various color families and calling them all perfect for summer.  I love my SCs but that leaves me (very) mildly irritated.  I like to know what's new, you know?  I'm not in stores that sell SC often enough to know what each little collection is so I can never really tell what the hekk it is that I'm looking at when I venture beyond the core lineup.  Whatever.  Moving on.

  If I told you I had no idea Hot Chili was a texture when I bought it, would you believe me?  There's nothing on the bottle designating it as such.  I thought the formula looked a little suspect, lol, but I didn't even know SC had done any textures until the subject came up in one of my facebook groups.  Anyhoo, Hot Chili is a brick red/mauve metallic finish with a small amount of tiny textured bits and a lot of tiny holographic hex glitters.  It's super pretty and actually less textured than many glitter polishes.  You could topcoat this to smoothness easily, or, if you're still not sure about textures, get your feet wet with a tame one.

Sinful Colors Hot Chili

Zoya Magical PixieDusts

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   Happy Sunday, all!!  So most of you've probably at least heard about Zoya's spring collection of PixieDust textured polishes.  The set of three have been touted as holo and I'll just say right off the bat that that's not exactly true.  What these are are three of the standard PixieDust bases filled with holographic hex glitters, sort of like Essie Belugaria, minus the encrusted in stone look.  Apparently these three are pretty hit and miss with people on account of how thick they look on (also not unlike Belugaria).  Rest assured, though, that while the aforementioned and much maligned Essie rulebreaker is as thick and high maintenance as every swatch photo suggests, these three are as easy to wear and to apply as any preceding Pixie.  The formula is wonderful as always and the hex glitters do little to add thickness but a lot in adding a sparkly new dimension.  I used two coats of each polish.

  Cosmo is a crystalline silver polish and because of the very nature of silver, the holo hexes show up most prominently.  It's quite beautiful and indeed magical, despite the fact that I nearly threw my camera and lightbox out the window trying to get a decent shot of it.  In the end, I went with a couple outdoor shots.

China Glaze Crinkled Chrome Don't Be Foiled

  Good morning, everyone!!  China Glaze has kicked off 2014 with a new take on texture in the form of Crinkled Chromes, meant to emulate crinkled up aluminum foil on your nails (I guess, haha).  I feel drawn to unusual, polarizing, and envelope pushing textures (like Essie Belugaria) but the first swatches of this collection did nothing for me, despite the absolutely beautiful shades.  Then, Cris at Let Them Have Polish had the brilliant idea to wear these in one coat and it made all the difference.  Two looks like a paint job gone wrong, at least in photos; one looks cool and futuristic-- the sleek chrome finish isn't completely obscured and the texture pieces aren't the least bit sloppy when not layered on top of each other.  I decided I had to have one.

  I chose the aquamarine shade, Don't Be Foiled.  I used one coat and didn't use as light a hand as I probably should have-- mine still looks a little too thick and rumpled.  These are extremely pigmented and one thin coat will give you perfect coverage and the less you can get the glitters to catch on each other, the better.  Still, I daresay I like this!  I thoroughly enjoyed wearing this on my nails and I'm kind of excited to wear it again.

LVX Winter Resort 2014

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Good morning, everyone!!  I hope your holidays have been wonderful so far.  I'm sitting here wishing I'd have requested today off to recover from all the Christmas festivities, lol.
So now that the Big Day is over and New Year's and the depths of winter are imminent, I feel like this new collection is highly appropriate-- it's LVX's Winter Resort 2014.  Winter Resort says complete luxury to me, speaking of those for whom "holiday" is a verb and December swimsuit shopping is necessity.  This collection is firmly grounded in the here and now, though-- it's a set of five deep and luxurious shades and one onyx-black texture that are easily taken from New Year's Eve through the chill of February and beyond.

L'Oreal Hidden Gems

Good morning, guys and gals!  So I admit I was, for the most part, underwhelmed by the L'Oreal Gold Dust texture collection, except for Diamond In The Rough.  Then I found myself back at the display, picking up and really examining the bottles.  I ended up taking home another, Hidden Gems, and I'm not sure how this one escaped me in the first place-- it's so much of what I love most in a dark polish.

Hidden Gems is a blackened teal shimmer, a shade for which I have a tremendous soft spot, with silver hex glitter strewn throughout.  In the bottle, a slight purple shift is visible, but because this dries to a matte finish, the shift doesn't translate onto the nail.  It doesn't matter-- this polish is cool enough without it.

L'Oreal Diamond In The Rough

Good morning and happy Sunday!!  If you're on my LLPT facebook page, you might have seen or responded to yesterday afternoon's little query for advice on what to wear next/show you all on la blog.  The answer, amongst three choices, was pretty overwhelmingly L'Oreal Diamond In The Rough, and the scales tipped (in my mind) in large part due to my little sister's comment that I should imagine Jafar, Disney villain extraordinaire, saying the name to me.  That is half the reason I picked this particular color up-- Jafar's been my favorite Disney villain since I saw Aladdin the first time.  I can't explain why.  His voice?  One liners?  Overall appearance?  Not sure.  I only wish I could locate the little plastic Jafar figurine my mom gave me for Christmas one year.  It's stashed safely away somewhere; it would have made a most excellent prop to this polish. :)

L'Oreal's joined the textured polish bandwagon and done so in a beautiful and easy to wear manner.  The Gold Dust collection, their holiday lineup of six colors, are dusty, muted, and sparkly, in timeless shades, with the exception of one that looks to be an OPI Tiffany Case copy, surprisingly unique to the trend.  Diamond In The Rough is a warm silvery taupe texture with larger, monochromatic hexes that flash a little lavender-pink.

Essie Belugaria-- Holiday 2013 Encrusted Treasures Collection

Hi everyone!  I have what might be the most interesting polish of the year to show you today.

Essie's jumped on the texture bandwagon with a collection of six for the holidays, and these are unlike anything we've seen.  Ommorphia Beauty Bar loves them.  The Polishaholic hates them.  I was drawn to, and picked up, the most polarizing of the six, and also the anchor of the collection, Belugaria.

Belugaria is a black jelly polish packed with clear textured bits and medium sized holographic hexagon glitters.  The black base, combined with the drying action, take away all vestiges of clear and in two coats, this dries matte and thick, with the hexes giving off the appearance of being embedded within.  Its so odd, and completely fascinating.

Zoya PixieDust Sunshine and Carter-- Jewel Tones

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Hi everyone :) Here are the final two of the fall Zoya PixieDusts.  These two are rich and resplendent textured polishes reminiscent of colored gemstones and tailor-made for fall.  I call these the jewel tones.

First up is Sunshine.

Sunshine is a sapphire blue with silver shimmer, a polish with the same true matte finish of Chita.  The silver shimmers do something different in this one, though.  While they gave off a crystalized effect in Chita, they meld with the blue base of Sunshine and morph into a cool icy blue once on the nail.  It's almost as if they're heat activated.  Sunshine's a one-coater.

And finally, Carter.

Carter is interesting.  I initially called it a jewel tone because the effect in the bottle is kind of amethyst-y.  What it is, though, is a sheer, dark blue-violet jelly base packed with fuschia shimmer.  It's hard to explain this one-- it really doesn't look anything like its photos.  The base and the shimmer are much less cohesive in real life.  The shimmers would make this the sparkliest polish of the collection but the dark base both highlights and hides their potential.  It's more gleamy in the bottle, if that makes any sense.  It's got a bit of a Bad Romance/Scandalous/Facets of Fuschia vibe to it.  Carter requires at least two coats, depending on how thick they're applied.  I used three coats.  This one takes longer to dry than the rest of the Pixies.

To wrap up the collection, it's a pretty and vibrant grouping with a nice variety of finishes and some very distinct feels.  Sunshine and Chita are very cool and innovative in their matte crystalized finishes, Tomoko and Carter are super sparkly and festive, and Dhara and Arabella are perfect Indian summer shades.  My must-haves are Arabella and Tomoko.

All of the fall PixieDusts are available at Zoya.com for $9 a piece plus shipping.  Like Zoya on facebook and stay in the loop for specials and promos.

Thank you for reading and have an awesome Friday!  My leetle seester is having a girl's night out for her birthday tonight so you can count on us having as crazy a time as a group of old married dames and mothers of young children can have.  I imagine I'll be home by 10 ;)

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Zoya PixieDust Chita and Tomoko-- Elegant Neutrals

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Hi friends!!  I've got my next fall Zoya PixieDust pairings to show you all today.  These two are just kind of perfect for any time and occasion, gorgeous go-to colors with just the right amount of twinkle and festiveness to them.

This is Chita.

Greens, forest and kelly shades in particular, are wonderfully versatile.  They're as wearable and elegant as red, but with a little edge and less sex.  Chita is a true matte forest green with an abundance of silver shimmer to give it that PixieDust twinkle.  It's an interesting polish, different from any other texture I've tried, because it is so matte.  That base almost drowns the silver out, but it doesn't quite, which makes for a crystalized, unique take on a new classic.  Chita's a one-coater, too.

This is Tomoko.

Tomoko is another collection standout, in my opinion, right there with the Harlow-esque Arabella.  Tomoko is a high sparkle silver and white gold shimmer in a very pale ivory colored base.  It's absolutely beautiful, slightly sheer and multidimensional, almost too pretty for everyday wear.  It reminds me of a December wedding, but look at how it reflects the summer sun...

Amazing, this one.  I used two coats.

Chita, Tomoko, and the rest of the fall PixieDusts are available at Zoya.com for $9 a piece plus shipping.  Like Zoya on facebook and stay in the loop for specials and promos.

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!! ☼

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Zoya PixieDust Dhara & Arabella-- The Transitionals

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Good morning!!  I know a lot of you have seen the new Zoya fall PixieDusts all over the place already.  This is my take on the part matte, part crazy sparkly textured polishes.  Now honestly, it's a little hard for me to get too into fall just yet, but these two colors are as perfect for hot August days as they are for those nights where the chill creeps in ever so slightly.  The interesting thing about these two is that Zoya seems to have taken a couple colors from their summer PixieDust lineup and tweaked them a little to give them a little more fall richness.  I thought the collection of six paired off nicely into three very distinct subcategories.  I call these the transitionals.

Here's Dhara.

Dhara is a bright and fiery true orange lit with tons of orange and gold shimmer.  Some folks are drawing similarities between Dhara and summer's Destiny and the OPI Bond Girls color, Jinx (swatched here).  All three seem to have that golden orange shimmer, but Dhara is distinctly more golden (think changing leaves... seriously) while the summer colors are both coral leaning.

This is Arabella.

Arabella is an elegant magenta with an abundance of silver and magenta shimmers, and a smattering of blue-violet shimmer.  The summer counterpart to this one is Miranda, which looks lighter and more of a raspberry shade.  Arabella is darker and more dramatic.  I love this.  It's gorgeous.  And is it just me, or does this remind anyone a little of Zoya Harlow? 

Both polishes have amazing, easy as pie to apply formulas.  I used two coats for both and no topcoat.  The truly remarkable thing about these textureds is how long they last, and I know I can rock Arabella happily and chip free for the rest of the week.

Dhara, Arabella, and the rest of the fall PixieDusts are available at Zoya.com for $9 a piece plus shipping.  Like Zoya on facebook and stay in the loop for specials and promos.

The concert, btw, was AMAZING!  I'm still on a bit of a high from it and can't seem to listen to anything but Rush at the moment without feeling the music's inferior, lol.  I'll be spamming you all with second level seating photos later this week. ;)

Thanks for reading and have an awesome day!! ♥

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OPI Tiffany Case-- The Bond Girls

Good morning!!  Today's one of those days where I'd prefer to just put these photos up and just be all, "See, PRETTTTTTY!!"  I seriously can't think of a thing to say.  Holy SMOKES, I wish I had some orange juice right now.

Gahh, I still need to segue into the polish.  Hmmmm....

I heart the OPI Bond Girl Liquid Sand polishes, like, a lot.  They got me hook, line, and sinker with this collection.  I don't generally go for the "finish o' the year" polishes, but here I sit with my Bond Girls mini set AND a full size of Tiffany Case (and I'm fairly certain I'll be getting a full size Vesper, too).

Tiffany Case is named for Jill St. John's character in Diamonds Are Forever.

Tiffany Case is a gorgeous robin's egg blue polish.  I love this shade of blue and this is one of those that looks twinklingly magical both in the bottle and going on the nail.  Generously interspersed with the matte mica bits is silver and blue shimmer and some larger blue glitters.  This is the flashiest polish of the collection and I love how it gives my nails a jewel encrusted look.   It also seems to be the roughest, and I will say that is NOT what sends me about this collection.  I love the colors and I love how the texture makes them look, but I'm not wild about the feel.  Tiffany Case applies beautifully in two coats and does take a little extra time to dry since you won't be using a topcoat with it

If I had a big ol' diamond necklace, I totally would have done a shot with it, but I don't even have any fakes so I thought I'd pose with some real ice, lol.   That hand was INCREDIBLY cold, lemme tell ya.

The Bond Girls collection is still available for purchase at Ulta, but they're going fast and certain colors are proving impossible to keep in stock... If you're interested, run, don't walk, lol.

Thanks for reading and have a fantastic day ♥♥
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OPI Pussy Galore-- The Bond Girls

Good morning!!  C's been on an old Bond movie kick, lately.  Maybe bringing home these polishes inspired him, or maybe we're just thinking the same thing again.  Either way, it's been fun putting more than just a face and a name to these iconic Bond girls, even if I don't totally get the franchise itself and have napped through a good portion of each movie.  I dunno, 007 just doesn't do it for me.

Last, but most certainly not least, of my OPI Bond Girls Liquid Sand mini set is Pussy Galore, named for Honor Blackman's character in Goldfinger.

Pussy Galore is a gorgeous, soft, gratuitously girly cotton candy pink with slightly darker mica bits for the texture, and a smattering of fuschia shimmer that refuses to come out and play on camera, even in the sun.  It's got the same airy, whipped quality of Solitaire, and despite the semi-frosty finish that you've seen in some photos, is actually quite matte.  Pussy Galore reminds me of lingerie, of maribou feathers for your nails.  Titilatingly appropriate, no?  I think, if anyone asks what I'm wearing, I'll lead off with "You know the James Bond movie Goldfinger?..."

This polish is a little sheer.  I used three coats here.  The formula is practically-applies-itself amazing, as each of the Liquid Sands I've tried has been.

And finally....

... pussies galore.  They love each other.

Thanks for reading, and have an easy Monday. ♥♥

OPI Solitaire and Vesper-- The Bond Girls

Two of the OPI Bond Girls polishes that immediately jumped out at me when I first started seeing reviews and promos were Vesper and Solitaire.  I decided the opposites would probably look smokin' together.

Here's Solitaire, named for Jane Seymour's character in Live and Let Die, pinky and ring; and Vesper, named for Ursula Andress's character in the 1967 version of Casino Royale and Eva Green's in the 2006 version, middle and index.

 Vesper is awesome.  It's a dark, vampy aubergine base filled with tiny black mica flecks that give off a semi precious gem-like flash as the light hits them.  Think onyx or hematite.  In the demi-matte, deep purple base, the texture gives an effect of raw crystals.  It's the coolest, most unique looking polish, even amongst this textured trend, and I feel safe calling it my favorite of this collection (and possibly one of my favorites this year, so far).  The base is a jelly, and so, fairly sheer; I used three coats here.

 Solitaire is a snow-white polish with an airy, almost whipped finish, filled with tiny white mica bits, tiny silver glitter, and pastel pink and blue shimmer.  Solitaire is beautiful.  C says it looks like the surface of an agate; it reminds me of a wedding dress.

I've always loved the look of white polishes.  The cremes are a pain in the neck to apply, though, and there's something about the starkness that is fun to look at in photos, but hard to pull off in real life.  Solitaire satisfies my want of a clean and elegant, but not stark, look, while being very easy to apply and perfectly opaque in three coats. 

Love!  These two polishes make me hope this textured trend sticks around for more than a couple years.

Thanks for reading, and have an amazing day!! ♥

  

OPI Jinx-- The Bond Girls

OPI is just knocking it out of the park this year!  And thank heaven for their mini sets, I've purchased each of the three released this year, so far.  Hot on the shelves right now is the Bond Girls Liquid Sand collection, and as far as I'm concerned, there isn't a dud in the bunch.  This makes this mini set a sure shot and a great option if you're not looking to invest a bunch of money in this year's textured finish trend.

First up is Jinx, named for Halle Berry's character in Die Another Day.

Jinx is a perfectly balanced pinky-orange coral packed with gold and orange shimmers.  It reminds me of a glassfleck finish, if you were to take away the smoothness factor (and, it leaves shimmer all over your fingers during removal, just like a glassfleck).  Formula and application are both second to none-- Jinx is opaque in the standard two coats and applying this in a perfect half moon is ridiculously easy.  I don't do any brush cleanup around my cutes anyway, but my manis seldom turn out this neat.

 

I admit I haven't been very excited about wearing these textured polishes on my own nails, but this collection is just full of gorgeous.  The fact that these are named after iconic Bond girls gives the collection some special energy and makes the colors particularly fun to wear.

Thanks for reading, and have an amazing day!! ♥♥